Bonjour Coco

"Vivre Sa Vie"

2011-02-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

pure, she is the cure.

2010-12-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

she said dont make music like this

dont make it sound like life is a miss

but i see now youre gone

that i will come undone

no matter how many songs of hope

i try to cling to, im done.

i feel like im dying

i know im done flying

ive seen all the crying

have no more tricks of un sighing

the future is too clear

i see you have your eyes on her, dear

i see her smiling, its precious

i cant compete

with a pure and innocent girl

look what ive become

ive lost my youth and my passion

for the sun

my chances are gone

to have someone like you

who i know only wants

something like her

pure, she is the cure.

what am i to do.

'the signs, they mock me as i go' - robert mapplethorpe

2010-12-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

New York's finest: Ying Chu!

2010-12-05T22:51:00.000-08:00

If you want to know what is the shizniz, wots 'poppin' off'... check out Ying's new Winter collection! He is sewing up a storm in his Chinatown basement apartment... just like a good little gaysian baby! Check him out... one of the greatest loves of my life. I love you baby buddha!

YC: YING CHU ONLINE SHOP

“Apollo is the genius of the sole path to true redemption through illusion.”

2010-12-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

Danger will follow me now

Everywhere i go

Angels will call on me

And take me to my home

Well this tired mind

Just wants to be lead home

You just have to laugh in the end because it's all a big joke.

2010-12-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

p 75 of "The Birth of Tragedy" by Nietszche: “If he sees here, to his dismay, how logic twists around itself and finally bites itself in the tail, there dawns a new form of knowledge, tragic knowledge, which needs art as both protection and remedy, if we are to bear it.”

above: a shot of a piece of wall from "The Sweet Ones" shot by Andy Lin. (legs belong to model Shannon Claire Tillery)

“despair is an attempt to expunge the goal of completeness”

2010-11-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

Unable to die

But I’ve forgot the desire

Of wanting to lie around

And sulk about it

I think I’ve found

Some kind of key

I think its to do with a lot of fucking around

We wake up at 4 when the city turns down the lights

And we live like the Spanish painters

Who communed with the night

When a haze overcomes you

So that nothings real or life

And then we pass out at dawn

While academics are just about

To kiss bye to their wife

Oiling the gears of the world in their jobs

Doing all the world’s work

So that the lazy, when we wake

Have you all to our own

Tired and burned

And ready for some fun.

-moi

YOU GOT SCRIBBLED!

2010-11-04T10:02:00.001-07:00

Brain purse

I got this brain purse

I was out of love

Then this purse came along

Now I got a new love song

About my purse!

It’s got multiple colours!

It holds all my stuff

What more could you want

When you’re in love

It’s got my camera

To take a pitcha

Of all the hot bitches

In my life

Cuz love is blind

Where is my mind

Right here, it’s my purse

Just sling it over my shoulders

Ya well-

I wrote a song

That’s pretty much a miracle

Cuz I just scribble

Sometimes I dribble

I’m a baby

Lost my spine

But you cant take away my rhyme

All I’ve got now is my time

Don’t need a dime

I’ve got pain

In my veins

That’s all it takes

And some chocolate with my wine

Oh janada

She’s from Canada

Duh

Scribbler

Defibrillator masturbator

Just bate her

Like a bunch of alligators

I just hold

The guitar

I don’t play it

I never made it

Just a baby

But I like u to play me

Can u blame me

It’s all backwards

When u play with a star

Ride the janada car

Look to the backwards r

Cuz ur a toys r us kid

Jana just cannot help it

Wellp it

She’s just smokin’

Sicking you with some stuck it

U gotta cart me

Like a renaissance baby

That’s how you can date me

Can’t just fellate me

Don’t bark up this tree

I’ll give you splinters

So remember to shave me

Try to maintain me

Soft as a baby

Don’t be too shady when ur rocking me

It takes some time

If you want to keep me in your life.

I’m busy blossoming

Like a tree

This flowers been blooming in your yard

You can try real hard

To pull out this weed

But I’m everywhere

It’s in the seed

I got good seed.

Get a whipper snapper

Like janada

Getta kidnapper

Get her outa Canada

She’s scrapping the world for some scribblets

Like me

And it’s a miracle

Cuz I thought my only love would be for trees

But now I’m singing

It’s a miracle, like nerds rope

That this song sounds this dope

I’d like to thank gushers, lucky charms and the fruit you can roll up

We be cool

You don’t love me that’s cool

I’ve already gone far

Can you see my star?

No cuz it’s so far

Scrappy she rocks hard

Scribbles in your yard

Dot the I with a star

Roll out the carpet

Slip and slide to the Barbie car

Drive to the mosh pit

Make it into a sand pit

Build castles with the humans

Each grain is another golden ticket.

It’s not scary really

Just like playing in the sand

But instead of sand we’re riding

On a thousand angels’ hands.

Jana: you’re kinda like jim morrisson over there, baby

Me: thanks scribbles.

It’s simple

I’m like pre-pimple

J – what’s pre-pimple?

Me- it’s when u ain’t got no puberty… do I sound crazy? I’m just a baby!

Where are you gonna go?

I don’t know

I want the freedom to choose

Either way, I’ll lose… well!

Just because it rhymes

Doesn’t mean I have the time

Chicken fajita pita

Minute maid lemonade

Hey baby

Whatup scribbles?

What up dawg?

Do the cool kids still say dawg?

Whatever

Well-

We’ll say it anyways

Cuz whatever we say

Comes out in that cool kinda way

I AM NOT TOO PROUD ANYMORE

2010-11-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

When the child was a child, it walked with it’s arms swinging

could turn the puddle to the sea

the river to a torrent

the box a house for you and me

when the child was a child, it didn’t know you were there

couldn't see how long you cared

to leave me now I guess is fair

when i was a child and couldn't see

everything was full of life

and all life was one

never waiting for someone like you

to teach me how to die

all i knew was under the sun

hello princess, angel, sweet one

at last mad, at last at peace

at last mad, no longer alone

at last mad, at last redeemed

at last mad, an inner light

when I was a child I was never this confused

we had time for those questions

Like why am I me and not you?

But now it’s too late to pray

for you to come back like a fool

Know you'd have to make me die too

To be alongside with you

I miss when Barbie was a good enough muse

None of this real stuff we have to do

I miss it safe

The wise ones say

That the bravest thing to do

Is never leave something safe

At home in heaven

Alone

Just stay.

So why are we…

Running, trying to go through

Pain like it’s a muse

I miss when Barbie was a good enough

Muse.

Cartoons and boxed juice

Why am I here and not there?

Why am I me and not you?

i can't take your help, to need is hell.

2010-11-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

vile she said

why

am i being vile she said

why

did i come to see them, she said, why

why did i come here, then if i

won't look at you in the eye?

so i'll go

i said that.

push me again,

may be broke

but it won't scare me i said

from packin up

i'll hitch a ride

i dont care

if u wanna be that kind of mom

who tries to help me...

I’ll go.

i could get up and stop caring

about everything in one blink

don't like how my heads on the table?

consider me polite.

for restraining from the dark thoughts

i have running through my mind.

tell me i need help and i'll go

it's my blood on the table not yours

call it running from being normal

if you say so

maybe i'm not brave enough, so

i'll keep running until time tells me to roll

promise you wont chase me no more.

maybe its your own fault,

you choose

who you help and who you don't

if you try to force me, you lose

maybe you think it's abuse

always leaving

you wish i had no pride

or was better at my lies

can i convince you

that i'll be fine

even though you know i want to be high

and shamelessly i

won't even make you an excuse

i tell you the truth.

it's too much for you.

so you said i need help, then

i'll go.

then stop loving me,

but you won't.

not my fault

stop loving me. can't?

not my problem.

i'll go.

say you need me, put it in a song

2010-11-04T09:21:00.001-07:00

But what could I do

I always fail at that game

I always lose.

Poetrys a game too

Like the game of trying to win something I’ll always lose

A game of loser take all

Writing like a fool.

crumbling foundation

2010-10-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

So there's a couple of houses in the middle of nowhere, we like to call the "murder" houses (because they look like the perfect setting for a horror film). It's basically an abandoned home that has crumbled to bits and is super fun and illegal to play in. So Matti and I... go there often. Ha. Recently the floors in one of them have completely caved in, and the floors that are still there are extremely close to caving.

So we went in and decided to do a shoot in there the other day... and walk all over the bouncy moulding caving floors. We don't care much for our lives, so although the outcome resulted in us getting away alive... we were not averse to the opposite possibility.

Thankfully, at least our surviving allows me to show you some of the 'behind the scenes' shots if you will. In my next post I'll post some of the finished photos!

That's me going down the fun 'caved in' kitchen slide!

It was actually a lot scarier than the photo allows you to see... but

one thing that does come across well is the fact that I was a very filthy girl after

being done with this!

Some great textured wallpaper... some people would pay

thousands to achieve this antiqued wall look I bet...

A bit of me there trying to get a shot with my

new favorite wallpaper.

Very cozy living room as you can see....not too

far from the loveliness of some apartments you find

on craigslist!

I just like this cuz I feel I look a bit Jessica Stammy...

hold your laughter...I know it's more likely

that I am highly deluded (maybe from

all the asbestos from spending a day in that place!)

And here we go, there's me getting all settled in on a comfy, hygienic couch (cough)

Believe it or not we found lots of in-tact children's toys in this room. So we took them...

obviously.

....and oooooh ok ok I'll show you one of the finished ones... since you asked so nicely!

A bit of a super villainess in this one I think... or I hope!

Beach beach beach!

2010-09-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

It's September and everyone has cleared off the beaches so they are literally barren - which means perfect for half naked photo shoots with Matti! It was so sunny and warm yesterday that I even got in the water! I think I have to go back for a full on swim soon... because it was still super nice, even in fall!

Being a Dickhead's Cool!

2010-09-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

aaaaaahahaha!!! "basically i'm a part time blogger and i started my own jewelery line which is like a mix of religious iconography and kind of has got a saved by the bell vibe"

This is the funniest Youtube thing I have seen in a long time! It's smart and SPOT on!

Ballbreaker

2010-09-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

I did a little writings for a new Playboy site called "The Smoking Jacket". The section they asked me to write for was called "Ballbreaker" where I basically have to list things guys do that irritate me. I've already gotten hate mail from men thinking I'm a bitch - but hey, gives me a bit of an edge. Ha, so here it is:

Ballbreaker: Alyssa Pallett

GODBY BYGOD

2010-09-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

My great great friend Matti Bygod has been tinkering with my camera for years and I've been encouraging him to keep pursuing his tinkerings because every time he shoots he gets better and better. I am comfortable saying that he is the most interesting young photographer that I know, at the ripe old age of... 23 (which he turned again this year for the third year in a row haha).

His photos have a mystery and other-worldliness that is rare especially for someone self-taught with an obvious natural talent and eye. That said, I'm also biased because he told me today that I'm his muse. So how could his photos NOT be good with me as his muse!? They're BRILLIANT! Ha!

A couple of days ago we did an impromptu shoot in his basement and these photos are probably sexier than anything he's done thus far. Check it out, and check out his website with more of the work (which I've also styled). GODBY BYGOD

WEBSITE

Do you call Quest?

2010-09-01T23:38:00.001-07:00

The concept of Innocence, and the concept of the Fall

2010-08-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Innocence is ignorance - but how is it lost? It is not my intention to report here all the ingenious and absurd hypotheses by which the beginning of history has been encumbered by thinkers and speculators who only out of curiosity are interested in this great human affair we call "sin". I do not do so, partly because I would not waste other people's time by reciting that on the learning of which I have wasted my own time, and partly because the whole thing lies outside of history in the twilight where witches and speculators ride a race on broomsticks and sausage-pegs.
-Kiergegaard, Works of Love

Upon driving around the countryside Matti and I discovered an old barn selling rotting randomness and to our pleasure we came upon the most delightful box of old buttons with fading colours and chipping and rusting. These buttons are another inspiration for our collection now. Especially the colours... is this innocent enough?

'The Sweet Ones' clothing line...

2010-08-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Matti Bygod and myself are in Canada now, spending a lot of time in the countryside working on our new clothing line "The Sweet Ones" which is country-inspired and greatly grounded in what we love about small-town America. Here is a shoot we did with one of the first looks we have worked on. This is just the beginning but it give you an idea of what is to come. The colors for the collection are going to be inspired by old, faded photographs, and everything in the collection will give you a sense of nostalgia for a time and a world seemingly lost. But not lost for long! Dresses that are fit to wear until they have ripped and torn, wicker hat, picnic basket purses, vintage laces, and fabrics that will resemble floral patterns from curtains and bed skirts of a classic country home.

We will keep you posted as the collection nears completion!

On my love for Walt Disney

2010-08-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

I do love him so. He is my religion on facebook. "Disney Parks and Resorts, where dreams come true."

If one source of Disney's magic was his ability to mediate between past and future, tradition and iconoclasm, the rural and the urban, the individual and the community, even between conservatism and liberalism, the most powerful source of his appeal as well as his greatest legacy may be of wish fulfillment and demonstrated on a grand scale to his fellow Americans, and ultimately to the entire world, how one could be empowered by fantasy - how one could learn, in effect, to live within one's own illusions and even to transform the world into those illusions. "When You Wish Upon a Star" was his anthem and guiding principle. He had remolded a world not only nearer to his heart's desire, but to yours and mine. In numerous ways Disney struck what may be the very fundament of entertainment: the promise of a perfect world that conforms to our wishes.

All of this is very similar to what Andy Warhol did with the factory. But Walt Disney's vision was purer, less based on the corruption and disintegration of people and more on what is beautiful about naivete... freezing childhood forever in time. I can't watch a Disney movie these days without feeling insanely joyful inside.

One of his greatest gifts was in finding the elemental and the essential of virtually every form in which he worked - its genetic code. Whether it was his fairy tales or his boy's adventures or his castle or Main Street or the Mark Twain Riverboat in Disneyland, each seemed to have been refined into the fairy tale, the boy's adventure, the castle or Main Street or riverboat of our mind's eye. In an idealized world where wish fulfillment prevailed, Disney had consistently concretized the ideal and provided the pleasure of things made simple and pure the way one imagined they should be, or at least the way one imagined they should be from childhood. He has Platonic templates in his head.

Others, virtually everyone in entertainment, attempt to tap this same reserve, but Disney understood wish fulfillment from the inside, which may be why his own longings connected so powerfully to his audience's. His life would become an ongoing effort to devise what psychologists call a "parcosm," an invented universe, that he could control as he could not control reality. From Mickey Mouse through Snow White through Disneyland through EPCOT, he kept attempting to remake the world in the image of his own imagination, to certify his place as a force in that world and keep reality from encroaching upon it, to recapture a sense of childhood power that he either had never felt or had lost long ago.

AMERICA

2010-08-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

My style and the style inspiration for my store came from my fascination (being Canadian), with the different facets of Americana and how style could represent and sum up an entire genre of American so perfectly. My style, as I go back through and look, is kind of like an exploration through all of these genres and trying for a moment to live vicariously through all the lifestyles that America has bred over the years.

There's the "tacky American tourist" that I am inspired to absorb a lot more of (more fanny packs!), there's the Walmart American (or you could just call them the 'trailer trash' or 'britney/lindsay chic' American). Then there's the rockers, hippies, the angsty teenagers, artsy teenagers, the NY hipsters, the LA roof pool party girls, the country girls... and when I really have the time, I'll go all out and put some effort into looking a bit like an old american movie star from hollywoods golden age! I also want to venture into the style of the American mom (ie. mom jeans and mom shorts and anything you can order from the jcrew catalogue)

So I've gone through all of my outfits over the past few months and have literally summed them up into all of those categories above. I have not done anything international, or french-inspired, or avante-garde really. I've just really enjoyed soaking in the American culture while I've been here. I am Canadian, and proud, but I blood love America and always have! Here is my take on ya'all! And There's a hundred pictures here so... 100 insights into my perfect Americana!

an (almost) live (not real) TV show

2010-07-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

it gives me something to do.

shitty ain't never look so pretty.

topics:
1. reading is cool
2. figs
3. a day in the life of ying chu

me and hiraku on the manhattan bridge

"I do not want to be a 'literateur'"

2010-07-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Henry Miller: The Paris Years. I was walking through Soho and there's that book table that's always propped in front of the Startbucks on the corner of West Broadway and Houston. The book was calling my name... it might be because the man on the cover looked like my dad (Miller). But also because I've always wanted to know more about Miller... and I've recently become a bit curious about what this whole deal is with everyone loving Paris so much. So I figured that hearing his personal experience in Paris would teach me how to appreciate it more.

It's true, it has been doing just that. In this book he even tells you what streets you must walk down, and at what time of day, and he says you should do it sober, drunk, in sunlight and at night, rain, smog... all those things. He also drew a map with numbers all over it corresponding to various illuminating experiences he had there. He says that there is not a block in Paris that he could not connect to an illuminating experience he had there.

I've been writing down a lot of excerpts, as I do (I pretty much reproduce entire books in note form... maybe because i think it will stay with me and sink in better that way). My favorite one so far is about how he wants to not get smarter but stupider. That was my big revelation last year and I've been really sticking with that philosophy, to great joy as a result.

"...What have I gained from the enlargement of my knowledge, the enrichment of my culture. Nothing. I've lost more. Do you know why I called my first book Tropic of Cancer? It was because to me cancer symbolizes the disease of civilization, the endpoint of the wrong path, the necessity to change course radically, to start completely over from scratch... Yes, from scratch, no question about it, for better or for worse... What I want is to halt evolution, to go backward down the path we have taken, to back to the world before childhood, to regress, regress, regress, further and further, until we get to the place we have only lately left behind, where culture and civilization do not figure... It is time that we start to think, to feel, to see the universe in a way that is uncultivated, primitive - but this is also without doubt the most difficult thing in the world to do."

I've been telling all of my friends that since opening my store I'd been getting younger, reviewing back through all of the years of my life, narcissistic childhood archeology if you will. Last October I was about 8 years old because I could see a lot of my creative instincts were coming from memories and things I liked at that age.

Around April I was about age 5. I had this revelation when I was on a road trip and we stopped at a Wal-mart, and for some reason I got absurdly excited about the sippy cups with the princesses on them. I was also looking at the plastic plates and bowls for little kids and was so amazed at how decorated they all were... in fun little shapes (shaped like animals, etc)... and I couldn't believe that 5 years olds were getting this privilege of eating from these amazing things, but as an adult I had pretty much been limited to a white ceramic plate and silver fork. Long story short, I realized I'm getting younger.

So now that it's July, I am at zero. I think that's about accurate because I have had a very empty mind, which is why I've taken to reading, to fill it up again with new ideas. I've also been reading a book about the art of Zen, which is all about no-thought and no-mind... which a zero year old would be very good at, naturally... so I've been quite good at understanding this whole concept and it's been very natural for me.

So now I have this desire to be in Paris... to wander the streets all day long, everyday, and just observe everything intensely and take lots of pictures. Maybe I will do that... I'll be about 1 year old by the time I make it there... maybe 2 years old. They say kids pick up languages a lot easier than adults, so maybe this time around, I'll actually have a chance at being bilingual! Ha.

my month and a half in hollywood.

2010-07-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the vortex that I call LA - or LA which I call the vortex. It doesn't enjoy letting you leave. So many horrible emotions I had to face while I was there... shock at how people would act towards me in certain moments. When you think you have it figured out, Hollywood throws you for another twist. It doesn't matter how peaceful you hold yourself to be...there, somehow... all efforts go up in flames when peoples' dreams are on the line in that dog eat dog town.

I stayed a month and a half... maybe it was longer I lost track at some point. Even though every day was a new painful experience for me, I don't know if it was painful because of the lack of reality there... or if it was exactly that lack of reality that WAS the reality that I had to face about being there. But there was something endearing about that... this lack of reality built upon peoples' desires to dream... and their commitment to that desire of living, quite literally, inside of a movie or television show every day of their life.

Anyways, I wanted to tell a little story not related to any of that, but still telling about that place. I was in a vintage store on La Brea in Hollywood a few days before I was to fly back to New York (where I had left right before the close of my beloved vintage store which was the well of my heart and soul in the city - and is now gone). In this store in Hollywood, I found a Dior silk dressing gown for 4.99 and a beautiful floor length skirt that I will probably wear one day when I'm in France with a picnic basket on the water... or something like that. I had no money, but my friend Pheobe had just lost a pair of Batman shorts I had lent her and was meeting me ten minutes from then, to give me the money to replace them. I was quite happy about this luck of mine (her losing the shorts)... because I really wanted the money to purchase the things from this shop. Now excuse my ADD ( by the way, people love that term in LA... it's their excuse for a lot of things) - anyways, the next paragraph is like a sidebar.

How it works for me, is that clothes and items that make me feel like I am still apart of La Dolce Vida... are more important than food that just goes into my belly, not to be seen or enjoyed by others once it's inside there... just disposed of. So as far as I'm concerned, I can find food more easily than beautiful clothes, and am not at all concerned with what kind of food it is. I spent an entire month last year living off of a single bulk box of Fibre 1 bars that my dad had left with me on a weekend visit to New York from Canada. Needless to say, I got really emaciated that month. But it was the month that I was working to put my new store together, and how I looked or felt was much less important than what my store was going to look like.

Continuing on with the point - at this store in Hollywood, with my $20 in hand after meeting with Pheobe on the corner to pick up the money (in ones and fives), I asked the man at the counter if he could give me $30 worth of things I had picked up - for $20. I told him it was quite literally my last $20 and that after that I would be broke. His response to me was the most illuminating moment for me... of the entire month and a half I had spent in LA. This man said "broke? how could a beautiful girl like you be broke?". And I told him "because I spend what I have on whatever keeps me happy at that moment."

...It's terrible, but it's true. I used to be really good at saving and hoarding away my money... but I sort of felt less secure that way. Being broke was inevitably going to take me down a completely different road, not chosen by myself (because I was helpless)... but it would have to be left in the hands of whatever was to come, not what I wanted, needed, or desired. It was out of my hands. And that felt absolutely amazing. Everything comes in it's own way, I could finally stop trying and just be nothing.

That man's comment in the vintage store... is like the world in a nutshell, in one way.

...Maybe some of us want to receive things in life because of something noble that they did, something that came from inside, from the mind, from the heart... not from the outside. Over this past year, I have been making a lot of conscious decisions to deny myself of many things that I could have had on a silver platter - great things, wonderful, bountiful things - but offered for the wrong reasons. I developed a skill (I'd like to think), for discerning peoples' intentions. I know what it's like to be trapped by my own decision to be controlled by peoples' offerings of prospects of gain.

I have to say, what I learned is that it was nothing but a stressful, miserable existence with no silver lining except the one I created myself - which was the day I decided to throw it all away and start my store, something I would do on my own with no help, and which through losing it I learned that nothing was ever truly lost at all... ever. As it is with life always, so much was gained in the experiences and illuminations that I was granted every single day of my life during the time I owned that shop.

I think about it now, and I'm really glad I made notes that whole time. I really plan on maintaining that habit of mine - which started because my friend Matti and I would always say so many funny things, and he'd always tell me "write that down!"... so eventually I started to actually do that.

Now I am staying here in New York, Chinatown, for another week and a half, with two of the most remarkable people in the world. They are my great friends, Ying and Hiraku. Future icons, completely inspiring, and so deeply beautiful and philosophically rich that it hurts to think about. For the moment, I really don't need anything else. Just these two souls. I love them both so much.

Where Ying sews.

Ying on the swing in my store ^

our hot summer so far...

the desk I made him with a picture I used to have hanging in my store

the wine still flows...

and the domino's!

but we still kind of ghetto!

2010-06-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

The other week I was sitting in an office with no toys to play with, just a shelf of books (I guess they don't have children in their waiting rooms often... I guess they don't have me in their waiting rooms often). But I did find something to occupy my time while waiting. I found a book with the biographies of all the different greek gods (I really wanted to keep that book, or purchase it... but I don't think they were for sale... in an office waiting room... ha). The book was great for hiding my camera behind so I could take a pointless picture and not be yelled at by the receptionist. The book was also great for some poetry, which I baby scribbled down into my notebook so that I could come around to this day where I recite it to you here:

They wove bright fables in the days of old,

When reason borrowed fancy’s painted wings;

When truth’s clear river followed o’er sands of gold

And told in song it’s high and mystic things!

And such the sweet and solemn tale of her

The pilgrim heart, to whom a dream was given,

That led her through the world – love’s worshipper –

To seek on earth for him whose home was heaven!

I think that's a wonderful poem and I think they wrote it about me, but doesn't everyone these days, think they're a god? Or am I just hanging around too many Godly creatures these days who truly are Gods? I'm not quite sure. But that poem was definitely written about me.

Always for a he... dear me! xoxo

U r so beautiful,are u clone of angel? Big fan from Egypt

2010-06-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

I HAVE A SECRET ADMIRER... (and he can even sort of speak english too!)

I'm Big fan of urs from Egypt,i love you so much,you are most beautiful woman on the world,i love u so much,much u can imagine
it's dream come true for me to email u ,I know u get millions of email from all ur fans I so so happy to email you and i will flying from happiness if u have time to reply
i can't believe i rely contact U, U r the best U r unique , U are so so so beautiful i had crush on u
U are gorgeous are U an angel?
,I love all ur work ,U are so cute like Angel
you are most beautiful woman in the world you are one of kind
you are Angel fallen from Sky to give us what we need of happiness
Gift from God to make our lives better
I can't find word to define how much u r pretty
I’m enthralled by ur beauty,mesmerized by ur charisma nd spellbound by ur love.No wonder I m alwys thinking about u.
If I could give you one gift, I would give you the ability to see yourself as I see you, so you could see how truly special you are.
Your smile is my sunrise, your kiss is my sunset
Your eyes are beautiful like the finest piece of art
Your sweet voice makes me lose all my worries
That is why it can only be you that is meant for me
you are the real meaning of word "Beauty"
you have face like Angel,sky got a lot of stars but they not cute like what u have in ur eyes

You are so sweet you myk da sug jealous, you are so hot you make the sun feel cold buh best of all you are so cute you make da teletubbies look evil

Even if the sun refused to shine, Even if romance ran out of rhyme You would still have my heart until the end of time,
You’re all I need

words however special could never even start, to tell you all the love I have for you within my heart
sky got a lot of stars but they not cute like what u have in ur eyes

i invite you to come and visit Egypt,
Hope you allow me to have the honor and be friend of urs
Thanks for ur kind to read this email & wish you reply
always love u
Your faithful fan
Eslam

(**cough** SEND ME MONEY DAWL! THANKS.)

2010-06-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

my expectations are next to zero when it comes to friends, frankly i'm shocked i have any at all even if its for 5 minutes once or twice per quarter. so that said, it means none of you fckers can or will ever come close to disappointing me. try me. i love all of you pieces of sht and it's too god damn bad if you've got a problem with that, you'll have a hard time making me stop. x

-Alyssa

NYC, i don't know what you are to me.

2010-06-18T04:32:00.000-07:00

We don’t have money for rent or electricity. That’s it for the circus this year. So it’s over, not even a season.

…my circus dreams, just memories ten years from now. “And the trapeze artist breaks her neck”.
On the last night no one shows up, you play like fools, and I fly around the ring like a dumb chicken. And then I’m a waitress again.

pitchures

2010-06-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

gonna make them into stikkkers some day maybe.

how to self-destruct in ten minutes!

2010-05-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here we go, M.A.S.H. with no shame!

sorry to keep bragging but...

2010-05-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

I finished my 6th day today fasting from facebook. I had an amazing day. Kelly's boyfriend Logan brought all of his old tees to sell in the store so I officially now have a rack for the boys here at the sweetunz! Kelly and I also spent a LONG time googling how to play M.A.S.H because it's been so long that we completely forgot how it goes! I won't tell you what my results were, that's a secret... video to come shortly! (it's kind of a big deal...a video of us... our faces... moving? what more could you want for a ten minute period of time on the internet video viewing scene?) ...we are the coolest internet video scenesters. the proof is below:

In the meantime, if you forgot what M.A.S.H is... refresh your memory... everyone needs to remember what it was like to play this game as a kid. Remember how much you really believed that whatever your result was, was actually going to happen? Like we'd get all upset if we ended up with a shack or something. M (Mansion) A (Apartment) S (Shack) H (House) >>> HOW TO PLAY

Oh ANd, cheCk out my cool new flyer that I made today (I'm constantly amazed at my consistent outpour of brilliance... it just keeps coming... who can stop me? No one! "Oh ma lord she draws unicorns too... we can't even keep up! We surrender, ur majesty!")

dear you...

2010-05-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hey this is Alyssa, HOW ARE YOU? I'm fine but...
I F*CKING MISS YOU! IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

Ugh.

(does anybody even read this blog? lol. gettalife.com - jk. ain't no one readin' this sh*t. [maybe me dad, ha] FML.)

Ello. "I just met you, and I love you!"

day five facebook free...ya ya!

2010-05-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I consider this a big deal!

On the fifth day off facebook, my new life gave to me... an amazing employee, Kelly! Ha ha. Kelly K. worked in here today so that I could go ride my bike around Brooklyn and chill in the park... and get some sun... cuz I get called snow white a lot when I walk down the street. I used to think that only happened in foreign asian countries, like when I went to Thailand when I was 18. Apparently not!

Today in the life of a facebook-free individual, I found that Brooklyn is installing sandboxes on the sidewalks? LOL. Amazing. I'll bring my bucket and spade next time? Hm....

I also realized... the Williamsburg bridge is pink apparently? Wow! Are they customizing the city for me now? Sandboxes and pink bridges? Amazing.

My new favorite place to vacay is a tree in the park at 13th and Bedford... McCarren? I doubt I spelled that right.

I like my shorts apparently enough to show you them...

...meanwhile.... back at the Bat Cave... missy was making the store look BEAUTIFUL! She made it feel so much more summery and colorful! And she says she had the most romantic time with herself today working in the store... she was inspired to keep playing with things and couldn't stop. Thank you! It looks so good!

It looks like candy!!! That's how we like it here. Yay us, we rule!

i was hangin' out with Miley tonight... yes, I'm cool like that...

2010-05-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

oh gosh, i'm so embarrassed to admit that i have famous friends, but anyways... this IS my life and it's crraaaayzzzaaay! Some people ask what she's like and I say "oh, she's just bein' Miley".

...ok I found her in the trash outside a costume store... my friend Jason LOVES Miley... I mean, his dog is even named after her! So we grabbed her! Oh but get this, there was not just one, but actually TWO Miley's that had been thrown away! So now I have my own Miley for my store, and Jason has a Miley to guest Dj with him at the Skinny! haha. I think she could also rack up quite a few free drinks from sleazy men if we just sat her by the bar all night... aaahahaha. Ok you know what? When everyone else is off vacationing out of town, we gotta grab every last bit of excitement we can find and squeeze it to the last drop! ;)

She definitely gives new meaning to the name... "The Skinny"

Sloppy, Miley, very sloppy! (well she didn't eat anything all day so...)

ahhh... biffles forever. I really can't believe sometimes, how wonderful my friends are. My favorite quality in a truly good friend is one that knows how important it is to keep it real, you know?

(ooooh, ur biffles just got pwned!)

romy and michelle meets dali

2010-05-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Salvador Dali did a painting about Columbus discovering america. The mariner was portrayed as an infant to depict America at it's pure youth. I have always said my store is basically representing me around 8 years old, and the store is meant to remind people about all the beautiful things about America throughout it's past.

Anyways, a while ago I re-watched "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion", and had written down a bunch of my favorite quotes from the movie (as usual). So there's a part where Romy is trying to get a nice car for them to drive to the reunion in, and she has to do something for Ramone to convince him to give them the car. So he wants her to pretend she's having sex with him in the office, so that the other dudes at his work will think he's a stallion or something, ha. As I do, I made a t-shirt because why waste such good quotes when the world could be reading them off of my boobs? yar!

end of day three off of facebook... phew. life's ruff man!

2010-05-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

That's not me, that's anita ekberg, in case you got confused for a second. (i get it all the time, it's ok... jk... sort of... ok i got it once!)

Sooo... three and a half days without facebook. I am on a facebook detox/fast. I'm passing my time right now by going through all my old notebooks and typing up anything seemingly useful or interesting. I found some stuff that brought me back to one of my favorite movies of all time, La Dolce Vita. This film is a consistent source of imagery on my dream board for my perfect future, ha. I will talk about this film and reference it all the time if you ever know me well enough to have more than one conversation with me. Ya, I pretty much am constantly referring back to this movie!

Anyways...

here's the notes I found about La Dolce from a notebook I had written in 2008...I'm quite impressed... I totally forgot that I still thought about things back then... so weird:

In the practical world people do what they have to do to get on with their lives, but these people who are in a much more abstract universe aren’t in that position. They don’t have quite that kind of energy or the needs that people in a slightly lower level of society have. These people derive their energy from the people they encounter. You can tell the difference between the lower society peoples' attitudes and their attitudes. The people living in the towns that they pass through want to know about things while they really don’t want to know about things. It interferes with their drift, their sort of vague sense of superiority.

Mastriani's character... in the movie...he fancies himself as a more serious writer than writing items for trashy papers but he doesn’t quite have the energy or the commitment to do anything more than kind of wistfully suggest that he is superior to the way that he makes his living.

Men please take note here: Male movie stars have always been a reluctant lover. Guys who are too eager for the girl have never been very attractive to women. Mastriani (Marcello) was among the most reluctant lovers you ever saw. He played the elusive male better than anyone.

I have to say, whatever I wrote in 2008 is proven extremely relevant in all of my experiences since writing that... and therefore, yay me for having once again gained a strange foresight through the process of seeing the world and figuring out the world through the joy and pleasure of watching movies!

(ok it appears i have no life but I also excavated from my old notebooks an old screenplay I'd written, and it's actually really funny... so...shut up cuz I'm going to be famous bitch!)

this would be a good t-shirt, don't you think?

2010-05-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

You have all the access in the world. Learn about your people and help the ones who are not used to being helped.

2010-05-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

If you want to understand people, I suggest this book to you.

Jung: Philosophy: Get with it.

Here is an excerpt that I excavated from one of my old notebooks from last year. When I read a book this good, I copy down a lot of my favorite excerpts.

Man and his symbols:

“And I want to thank you above all for your unfailing tact and patience in helping me to circumvent the painful cause of my neurosis. I am now ready to tell you everything about it. If I had been able to talk freely about it I would have told you what it was at my first consultation. But that would have destroyed my rapport with you. Where should I have been then? I should have been morally bankrupt. In the course of ten years I have learned to trust you; and as my confidence gre, my condition improved. I improved because this slow process restored my belief in myself. Now I am strong enough to discuss the problem that was destroying me.”

This is why I always say, everyone has their reasons for what they do and cannot do, how they act or don't act. It takes patience and understanding but for those who we care to help, the gratification when the day comes that they are helped, is all the reward you could ask for.

Film: Fantasy: Building Your Reality: Get wivvit!!!

LAURA: "It all started on an ordinary day in the most ordinary place in the world — the refreshment room at Milford Junction. I was having a cup of tea and reading a book that I got that morning from Boots. My train wasn't due for ten minutes. I looked up and saw a man come in from the platform. He had on an ordinary Mack, his hat was turned down and I didn't even see his face. He got his tea at the counter and turned. Then I did see his face. It was rather a nice face ... He passed my table on the way to his ... 'Oh please, could you give me a glass of water? I've got something in my eye and I want to bathe it.' That's how it all began, just through me getting a little piece of grit in my eye. I completely forgot the whole incident. It didn't mean anything to me at all. At least I didn't think it did ..."

Here's a great movie you can watch if you just want to appreciate those fleeting things that make all the difference in the world.

It's called "Brief Encounter"...

The WW II generation's "Lost in Translation."

success. day two with no facebook. watch my girl for dressing inspiration. i think it's beautiful.

2010-05-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

weeping willow with your tears running down, why do you always weep and frown?

is it because he left you one day, is it because he could not stay

on your branches he would swing

do you long for the happiness that day would bring?

he found shelter in your shade

he thought his laughter would never fade

weeping willow stop your tears

there is something to calm your fears

you think death has ripped you forever apart

but i know he will always be in your heart.

they can never steal my joy.

2010-05-23T14:16:00.001-07:00

“just a little girl, big imagination, never let anyone take it away.” (Spice Girls lyrics)

i keep thinking i have the coolest store in new york city, maybe even the world... and then it gets COOLER!

2010-05-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

i built the tree house last night. i'm going to keep improving it and upgrading it, as any home owner would do with their pride and joy. maybe we need to see a show called "pimp my tree house"? i think it took me like 5 hours total to do this... time flew actually... it was a hell of an effort though. you have no idea how many times i almost killed myself trying to balance these walls up while simultaneously trying to nail a board into tha base. also, behind the front window is a big drop into my basement, so it was a very precarious situation altogether - livin' on the edge! woo! this is going to be fun to mess with... sweet? ya, pretty sweet. ;P

...aaand.... FINNY!

officially day 1 off facebook...

2010-05-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do this for a long time now and finally got around to doing it. I'm starting to make my own pairs of wierd leggings. This is the beginning of the first pair - they're knee high granny nylons that I got for 25 cents at an antiques market. So I don't have to worry if they turn out crappy ;)

Leg shot had a purpose - to show the legging. I have no reason for the next pic below... except that I would feel bad if you didn't get to see my face. It's quite necessary you see my face often, in all my blogs... I know you love me bitch!

My friend Jermaine's wallet... this is why he's my friend. You would be friends with someone who had a wallet like this, wouldn't you? If you wouldn't, I don't think you should tell me. I won't be your friend.

I had brunch at Benny's Burritos. If you can't tell by the word burrito in the name...to clarify, it's a mexican place. ha. I really like to get chocolate chip pancakes at my brunches, personally. But clearly a mexican place doesn't do pancakes. Maybe they could have thrown some chocolate chips into a tortilla for me... but I'm a traditional kinda girl. So I was very close to not ordering, knowing there was a starbucks around the corner and I could just get the chocolate chip coffee cake on the way out... I really just go to brunch to see my friends anyways. BUT, at the last second, I saw a sign on the wall at benny's saying they do a chocolate chip cookie for $2.25. Good enuf! Mexican chocolate chip benny cookie pancake! Yum! Ya... I that's my cookie, those are the normal people eating proper brunch items... I'm such a classy uptown kinda girl, you know? ;P

...aaaand... my dad came into town today with my mom (from Canadia)... and brought me some wood to build the tree house I've been wanting to put in my store. Many people have offered to help with this venture, none have actually done anything... soo... as usual, I do this on my own. I don't complain because it means I get all the credit when it turns out to be AWESOME! I hate you all. Just kidding. (i hate you).

(I call that proof - that's a silk dress, a hammer, those are nails holding the wood together...and pedicured foot... clearly.)

I'll keep you posted. Gnite.

Canada, Peanuts, Beautiful Losers.

2010-05-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

Pierrot Le Fou. Pierrot the Fool.

2010-05-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

Pierrot: The moons only inhabitant is running away as fast as he can. Why? Because he’s fed up. When he saw Leonov land, he was glad. I’ll bet! Someone to talk to at last! He’d been all alone for an eternity. But Leonov tried to stuff his head with Lenin. When White, the American landed, he fled to his camp. But as soon as he saw him, White jammed a coke into his mouth and made him thank him first! So now he’s fed up. The Americans and Russians can shoot it out, he’s going away.

Pierrot: I, who love you…

Marianne: And you, who reject me…

Pierrot: As long as we want to run…

Marianne: It’s too much like fate.

Heaven is in black and white... but here on earth we were given colours to play with to see why they're there. Playing while knowing you do not need them, worries dissolve into air.

2010-05-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Wings of desire.

A woman in the rain who folded up her umbrella, and let herself get drenched.

A schoolboy describing to his teacher, how a fern grew out of the earth, and the astonished teacher.

A blind woman who sensed my presence, and groped at her watch.

It’s wonderful to live as spirit and testify for all eternity, to only what is spiritual in peoples’ minds…but sometimes I get fed up with this spiritual existence. I don’t want to always hover above. I’d rather feel a weight within. Casting off this boundless freedom and tying me to the earth. At every step, every gust of wind, I’d be able to say “now”, “now” and “now”. No longer “forever” and “for eternity”.

if nature is a balance.

what is the sun if there is no darkness in which to light?

how could the sun rest if it had no night?

i don't want to be a clean canvas on for others to write.

this purity is for something as pure-

i can follow you alongside.

heaven, my friend,

is in black and white.

-AP

Here's a great photo from a shoot my friend Serichai styled at my store... the photography was Andy Lin and that model there is Shannon Tillery and I'm pretty sure she's an angel too.

Coachella heaven.

2010-05-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Some moments from my Coachella trip this year... me and 6 of my friends rode in a hippie van across the entire country, and ended up in this euphoric sound heaven where I literally felt happiest just laying on the grass and closing my eyes, knowing that at that moment I was safe - I didn't have a single care in the world. And by the way... these daisy dukes... they got me into the festival for FREE! Yes, I had no wristband and walked right through and the man said "come back!" and I did and he said "those shorts look nice on you, have a good day". I kid you not! haha!

I have no idea who this girl is in the black and white dress... I think she thought we wanted her in our picture? lol.

Why does Coachella feel like a dream? Why was it so easy to rest and sleep and be completely in bliss surrounded by the music of my friends?

Tantric tradition calls rhythm the sound power or the heartbeat... of the absolute.

What is the absolute? Indulge in learning something really interesting today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_(philosophy)

I love philosophy and probably think way too much... but I'm a writer. I observe and I write things down... so that one day, when none of you remember what happened, I'll be here to retell it all... and it will sound like dances with the Gods... it will be perfection... as if it was all a myth.

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

2010-05-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

At Sloane, NYC, my new friends' store at Mott and Broome (Soho). Here they take vintage and turn it into magic... they party and nap in the basement, commune on the roof on sunny days... and are the personification of hippies living out the myth of New York City "like it once was, a place where misfits magically gravitated to one another at the chance crossroads of a creative revolution." (/Bollen, Interview Mag. Feb 2010)

www.sloanenyc.com

Videodrome, elephant man, a ghost... a prison.

2010-05-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

You don’t hold me that way.

How is it that I am alive

You are not alive

Shame in the knowing, how you once received pain,

Now you would deliver the same...

Nothing could come into your heart that day.

ooh la la, charm is more valuable than beauty.

2010-05-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Ralph Lauren floral skirt and jacket, silk Chloe top...Michael Kors brown suede boots...

...vintage jean skirt with tiered ruffles... B.W.C.B velvet leggings (by my friends Ying and Hiraku!)... Vintage silk floral tunic top, Vtg fuzzy top hat from the 30's... (LOVE!!!)... and the black suede boots with the gold zipper are also vintage... duuuh! It's a vintage store! We love vintage! ahhh! :) muah muah muah! <3

I know we're cool.

2010-05-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've started a rack in the store completely inspired by the Italian Riviera and South France and a bit of rock and roll. My favorite places to be in the world, and just to get you in the mood for what is pretty much my ultimate dream setting, here's a little video you might remember by Gwen...

a traveling mind picks up a lot of dreams as souvenirs.

2010-05-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

Kelly is channeling rock back when it still had style.

This is just fun.

I was told that I do NOT wear cool clothes, but that I MAKE them cool when I put them on. case in point. this outfit is clearly retarded. ha.

when they say there's "no rhyme or reason" to anything, i don't believe it! I prefer everything to have a rhyme and a reason, even if I have to make the rhymes and reasons myself. I will find reasons. and rhymes. there's a bounty!

i used to try but then i learned how to fly and from the sky i chose to be a light. but isn't life under the sun... just a dream without a night?

sometimes for a moment, we let thinking not be the answer... today we let my hampton cruiser show us the way!

2010-05-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

I went to visit Ying yesterday at his work to give him a hug and I took him for a bike ride on my pink bike and we found the prettiest alleyway in all the land and we found the scooby doo mystery van and happily ever after!

Also, my friend Kelly has started a blog, it's beautiful! Check it out: monnoiretmonblanc.blogspot.com

Here I am, world!

Back to the mystery van state of mind...

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

...and she did...

"Ying, try to just get me in the chair and the tree in the background so it looks like I'm in the hamptons or something!"

"oh hai, just chillin' on the chair you threw into the trash this morning... ur cool with that, ya? Ok cool."

I gotz a pink bun, yo.

"This is your bike, and this is your bike on crack"...

Nice walls are a hot commodity in this city... where else do you show someone a picture and they get all excited about the wall "oh my gosh! that's such a good wall! where is that wall? i need to go take pictures with that wall... what a great wall..."

Someone had the right idea...

And finally, the anti-money movement has started, which is lovely...

Welcome to the Fair Trade state of mind.

don't hate gowns.

2010-05-15T01:44:00.000-07:00

Kelly K. playin' in the wonderland. there IS a wonderland. remember this and you will be happy forever.

....stuck a feather in her hat and called it...

....oh and that's hot...

The Prairie Mormon Comes to New York, The Irish Folk Singer Refuses to Change, and The Canadian Resort Collection Keeps it Real (ie. campsite realness! lol). LMAO!

2010-05-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks I am going to try to document almost everything in this store. So today I'm going to start off with three looks. I first envision what kind of things I dream of doing this summer, and the different places I dream of being. Then I think about what I would wear if I were there, doing those amazing things. Have I given you a clue?

All of this stuff is vintage!!! (except the shoes in the last photo are Marc Jacobs...)

Messy Apartment Barbie: The Chaos before the STORE!!!

2010-05-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

Last September, 2009, I was getting ready to open "The Sweet Ones, NYC" in the Lower East Side... I made this video back then in the middle of all the chaos (I was doing everything myself) - and I am so glad that I have this footage to remember what I had to go through to get where I am today. It was an emotional time, it was a transitional time, it was a cleansing time, it was profound... and most of all, it was CRAZY BEAUTIFUL!!!

Baby Scribbles and Teenage Spiritualist! (and SQUEAKY!)

2010-05-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

I'm Baby Scribbles, coming to you from the 50 cent mini merry-go-rounds of Virginia (that was actually from a cross-country road trip we just recently did from New York to California!).

... and I'm calling my friend Jana "Teenage Spiritualist" because I am pretty much 100% sure she is the second coming of Kurt Cobain in a female Canadian body. This video is called: "teenage spiritualist is a lady now, i hope ur ok with that cuz that's what's happening right here."

AND meet Ja$on Yo$t. His tattoo on his chest says "SQEAKY" because he got drunk one night and let another drunk tattoo him at someone's apartment and they spelled SQUEAKY wrong! In this video he is sporting some retarded stripper heels. Retarded AWESOME that is! :P

First Japanese ESL Lesson: Bra

2010-04-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

First of all... Harper's Bazaar Japan for June... Sex and the City issue... holla!

And if you really have some time... you can watch me and Hiraku talk about it for ten minutes! (he actually translates most of the article so you do get to learn something... sort of?)

How can Gunne Sax pass in a hipster bar? Add a hat. ha.

2010-04-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this floral Gunne Sax dress that I actually got from one of my best friends Kelly Kopen, through trade (she was dying to have this Courtney Love-esque victorian dress from my store). I got my cowboy boots from a vintage store in Covent Garden, London a couple of years ago when I used to live there. The jacket is my favorite again, the one from Paper Denim & Cloth. The headband was from Woodbury Commons at the Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet store - it was originally priced at 98.00 and I got it for 17.00 so I didn't do too badly :)

...oh and the hat... I stole off of Ying's head! Haha... yes that is Ying of B.W.C.B. from FIT! haha. xxx

All of the pictures above were taken at The Skinny. My best friend Jason DJ's at the Skinny in New York on Tuesdays (in the Lower East Side, right around the corner from my store).

Flowers flowers flowers!

2010-04-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

I've had this Mr. Mort dress sitting in the shop since winter and today it was so sunny and I just came back from flower shopping... so I was ready to put this thing on! I'm wearing my favorite jean jacket by Paper Denim & Cloth, and the scarf I bought last summer in Venice... the red flower ring is a handmade silk one, and my boots are Michael Kors but I don't think you can really see them in these pictures. Anyways that doesn't matter... it's really about this amazing dress, which I have to mention, is from the fifties and has POCKETS! They really did that back then! Woo! I love it! :)

(up).

2010-04-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

The tree has branches. duh. They reach UP and out. silly. It TAKES the toxic air and it GIVES out oxygen. This is the function of the tree. The tree is built on a strong foundation. This is how it can weather the storms. If man cuts tree down, man is doing a very bad thing TO HIMSELF. The earth already loves the tree, because the tree hugs it with it's roots, and knows how to connect with the other trees below the surface, so that the hug can be bigger.

Can u see people in your own world as being like trees, too? Can you read and find out more about human behavior by looking into the wisdom of the age old tree?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree

As an exogenous tree grows, it creates growth rings as new wood is laid down concentrically over the old wood. In species growing in areas with seasonal climate changes, wood growth produced at different times of the year may be visible as alternating light and dark, or soft and hard, rings of wood.^[3] In temperate climates, and tropical climates with a single wet-dry season alternation, the growth rings are annual, each pair of light and dark rings being one year of growth; these are known as annual rings. In areas with two wet and dry seasons each year, there may be two pairs of light and dark rings each year; and in some (mainly semi-desert regions with irregular rainfall), there may be a new growth ring with each rainfall.^[9] In tropical rainforest regions, with constant year-round climate, growth is continuous and the growth rings are not visible nor is there a change in the wood texture. In species with annual rings, these rings can be counted to determine the age of the tree, and used to date cores or even wood taken from trees in the past, a practice is known as the science of dendrochronology. Very few tropical trees can be accurately aged in this manner. Age determination is also impossible in endogenous trees.

The roots of a tree are generally embedded in earth, providing anchorage for the above-ground biomass and absorbing water and nutrients from the soil. It should be noted, however, that while ground nutrients are essential to a tree's growth the majority of its biomass comes from carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere (see photosynthesis). Above ground, the trunk gives height to the leaf-bearing branches, aiding in competition with other plant species for sunlight. In many trees, the arrangement of the branches optimizes exposure of the leaves to sunlight

And watch this (remember the tree from POCAHONTAS?):

i feel like being flowery i guess

2010-04-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

Look what the rain did!!!

The nude leggings again!

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Some gods bring rain, some gods bring sun, some gods bring corn, some gods bring... clothes and swings? haha

2010-04-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; (1)

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, (2)

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus (3) rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton (4) blow his wreathed horn.

Wordsworth defined poetry as the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," intense "emotion recollected in tranquillity." In the sonnet "The World Is Too Much with Us" the poet contrasts Nature with the world of materialism and "making it." Because we are insensitive to the richness of Nature, we may be forfeiting our souls. To us there is nothing wonderful or mysterious about the natural world, but ancients who were pagans created a colorful mythology out of their awe of Nature.

Vintage DVF wrap top, Velvet Leggings by B.W.C.B, Vintage Michael Kors boots.

Vintage Lace Embroidered 1920's Dress, H&M Leather jacket, Topshop Boots

if little red riding hood went rolling in the dirt and then travelled back to the 90's for some basics...and met Janis Joplin somewhere along the way! And Wayne and Garth...

2010-04-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

The line "Bitches With Cigarette Burns" (also known as B.W.C.B) is ready for you! My friend/bunk buddy/biffle/lesbian twin (it's a joke people!)/little mermaid movie marathon companion... and... hair god...

Hiraku Morilla (Read more about him here...)...

...Is wearing... his new line B.W.C.B. - a line which he and biffle/roommate Ying Chu (yc-yingchu.com) made all by themselves... talented little bitches!

Hiraku "don't you feel like a bit gothic but like not gothic, like you're in a fairy tale but it's like a rock and roll Janis Joplin... Little Red Riding Hood kind of fairy tale?"

ME "Ok my turn Hiraku! Hiraku Hiraku!!! Put me in an outfit!!!"

Hiraku "Wear the Janicht!" (his way of saying... the Janis Joplin-inspired looking tee)

ME "Do I look like you now?"

Hiraku "No, that's what I love about our stuff... you just look like a sexy mysterious earthy gothy fairy tale character..."

The Galady Tee by Yingypooo choo chooo!!

2010-03-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

My friend Ying's tanks are now in my store! This is soooo exciting for me because months ago when I first met this little buddha angel, I was going through his facebook albums and discovered all of these sketches that for some reason were sooooo intriguing to me. They have so much life to them. And I immediately could picture them on tee shirts. So, since Ying is the master of cutting tee's, I said "why don't you print your sketches on some shirts?" Well, having two restaurant jobs it's been QUITE the journey to see these things come to realization but FINALLY they are here (and Ying is soooo exhausted) - But they're HERE! So you MUST come by the store and try these on. They're the best layering piece, super sexy for summer... and these are only the beginning because there is so much more to come!

The velvet leggings are by Ying and Hiraku's line, B.W.C.B. (Bitches With Cigarette Burns)

Galady Tank By YC: Ying Chu

VELVET LEGGINGS By B.W.C.B

too smart for your own good.

2010-03-27T18:55:00.001-07:00

We have all, at one time or another, made the mistake of outsmarting ourselves.

And by this I mean - that growth of the brain is different from growth of the heart.

maybe i'll call it kidarte. why not? tee-hee (no pun intended)

2010-03-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

They're counting on a guilty conscience to save you
But I'm bankin' on the deep blue eyes and the face to
They always said, ALWAYS SAID, always said you were easy, oh . . .
If I could have just one piece-o-that I'd be
Sold. . .

Come over to the sweet ones baby,
I'll tell you where to go.

I'm fine being a single as long as I look like they do in Singles!

2010-03-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

I decided to make an outfit inspired by these three frames from the movie "Singles". This outfit from the movie was accompanied by no top... because it was a guy's outfit in the movie... but I'm femming it up and putting on a really tight pink/nude tee... so I hope that's okay with you! lol.

Inspiration......

I found some things that would work - but girlier! (is there such thing as girly grunge?).....

put it together and what have u got... bippiddee boppiddeee booooo!!!!! (the velvet leggings are B.W.C.B, the socks are...dirty... the white thing is a 1920's skirt that is tattered and continues to get more and more tattered everytime i wear it... and step on it... constantly... with my stilletos! haha!!)

how many wonders can one times square cavern hold?

2010-03-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Ying and Hiraku. They've been designing their first line together, B.W.C.B (Bitches With Cigarette Burns), which is going to be in my store in.... less than two weeks. In the meantime, I have been making due with stealing their clothes right out of their apartment... haha. Micaela and I slept over at their apartment in Times Square again last night. We watched the movie "Singles". I've decided Matt Dillon is really hot, in a really gross kind of way... that reminds me of the brooding teenage boys who lived on my street that used to make stink bombs with my brother... and I'd always want to join in... until I realized what they put in the plastic bag to make it... stink.

Oh my gosh and the redhead character in "Singles" was soooo bad and good and stupid and amazing and.... uuuugh! My idol, my idol!!! Such a tard, in a really cute, sweet, "bless her soul" kinda way. Like in the same way that my friend Matti always used to say "ur endearing, Alyssa, because people always love to root for the retard!" Ahhhh! Hahaha. So "Singles" was amazing. Ying and Hiraku watched it last summer and that movie single-handedly defined their wardrobe for that summer. Very 90's. Oh my gosh, and there was this scene that gave me an idea for a video I want to make... the scene where that redhead chick pays a guy $20 to shoot her dating video... and it's the most... amazing... i... can't... even.... uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh!!!!! It was too amazing... too amazing... too.... why didn't I think of.... must... make... video.... now.

Moving on... let's talk about the real reason I sleep over at theirs... the shopping I do in their dirty laundry piles! Cuz they've always got like.... a bazillion amazing things... that I "borrow" (cough).

Like... this top that Hiraku made last summer... shredded it... and is so over it cuz he wore it all last
summer soooo... it's my turn!

It's f*cked up I tell you... but I feel there's some knowledge that can be read from it..

2010-03-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

There's those who are more woman, those who are more man, those who are the perfect balance of both (aphrodite). Since aphrodite's are the rarest, if you fall for one, you usually have to do three things: fight for it. find your own power in a way that keeps her powers balanced. and then finally, after all is said and done... you have to find a way to accept a compromise that will be far from what your traditional ideals of love are - different, but not necessarily inferior. By embracing the beauty of this new structure, you can be very happy. Otherwise, you can be "content" by compromising and settling for one of the others anyways (the mortals!) - and just fill your spare time admiring the aphrodite from a distance. There is a male equivalent to Aphrodite and it's called the Jesus syndrome! Lol. But we can save that for another day.

Aphrodite - The Goddess of Love, Desire, and Beauty
She is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Aphrodite was very independent and constantely
in search of a new lover. One of her more familiar lovers, Ares, the God of War, is whom
she later married. She felt no pain in being deceitful, as she abused the fact that she could
have anyone and everyone, love and admire her. Of all of her miscellaneous affairs,
and children, the most well known is Eros, the God of Love, also
known as Cupid.

these gems floating around you... will only be a pest... if you choose not to see them at all.

2010-03-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

There's gems everywhere in my store. I hung them from my ceiling and they hit people in the face. But the thing is, if people looked more closely at these things, before they sped through... they wouldn't get hit... they could just float through the space between them. But people usually don't even know they're there, or see them - until it's too late. It's already smacked them in the face or got caught in their hair! Soooo... what we have here in my store, essentially... is the perfect little speed bump which will force you to slow your little bum down a bit! This store is not for the stress of the city. You take your time. And then (as is often the case) .... you get the sudden urge for a little nap! Lol. Because when you sleep... you get to dream. And hopefully this place inspires dreams! :)

Pay some attention to what this is all about.

Look around...

float through the space between the gems....

So you'll get to see ALL of them... more clearly!

The four corners of what makes the space that is right around you. (left, right, above, below)

Pay attention to, and love this space... and you yourself will become your own diamond, because you will absorb every little bit of beauty you see... into your own self... which should be centered and solid as a rock...

what stone gives off the most light?

A DIAMOND!

ABOVE

LEFT RIGHT

BELOW

GARAGE SALE!!!

2010-03-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Whatchu gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your trunk?

all bodies rise...

2010-03-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

There is a beautiful organization which I want you all to be aware of. To go when you want to feel safe. To re-ignite your fire... these are my people!

.....http://yogatothepeople.com

TRUST. :)

"God bless 'em!"

2010-03-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

... a direct quote from ppl. standing outside my store today. Lord knows what they were blessing or laughing about... but they were peeking into my windows and maybe saw that I was hanging clothes and arranging the racks this morning...IN UNDERWEAR! OOPS! Hahaha!

By the way, check out our new windows! We have dressed the mannequins for spring, and god bless this gorgeous 70 degree weather! Fook ya!

Ok so I read this really funny Yelp review the other day about my store. Yes I do check those reviews! Haha. Anyways, that review has stayed with me for the past few days because of how... colourful it sounded. I actually really want to meet the person who wrote this... so I can sit them down and make them understand Die Antwerd-style... exactly why they are simply "Not on my levvullll!"

The Yelp review I am referring to: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-sweet-ones-manhattan#hrid:ad83ag7IANlzcjesv_S_hQ

Anyone who calls my clothes absurd are missing the point. EVERYTHING in my store is absurd so that the funky-ness of this funky-ass country is IN YOUR FACE! Like an archive, if you will... of the most memorable styles from every era. The stuff movies were made of. And not a single mommy or grandmommy can walk into my store and not find something that makes them say " oh my goodness! I remember when this was in style! Honey (to their daughter) ... try this on I want to see it on you! "
... daughter proceeds to make a gross face and then continues to pull out a handful of funky-ass shit that in twenty years, their own daughters (most likely to be attired in space suits)... will make gross faces at.

An example of the kind of things in my store that the Yelp review lady chica doesn't understand or appreciate (Modeled by Micaela McLucas)

Lacroix Jeans from the 1980's.

And if you don't know about Die Antwerd... you need to get with the f*cking program dooods and dooodettes :)

"everybody has an inner zeff. its just when you are on full flex, like another levul. like in a video game when you reach the next levul. put it on the interwebs at the speed of light...our experience was transferred... and if you hate it... it's because you're not on my levul. sorry but it's that simple." die a

2010-03-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

What are you doing darling?
Writing, my love.
What about, my dear?
Everything, my love.
What about everything, my darling?
Magic, my love.

I think this is really practical, don't you?

2010-03-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do this for a while and finally this weekend it's been so rainy and miserable that I thought it was the perfect time to crack out the markers and f*ck up my leggings. Too bad a lot of the stuff is upside-down because I was drawing on them as I was wearing them! lol. Also too bad that photobooth on my computer makes everything backwards... so now you have the fun of trying to read the writing from upside-down and backwards! If you are curious, though, the writing across my top bit says "5. There is a Wonderland" and then down my leg it says "6. I CAN SLAY THE JABBERWOCKY!" hahaha :)

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?" - Alice in Wonderland

This one says: "1. There is a drink that makes you smaller"

And one last thing, I just wanted to show you this amazing skirt I got... because it reminds me of Clueless and I feel like Clueless is sooooo going to come back in... I mean the tacky style from that movie. And those feather pens! And the plaid pants with the angora sweaters, and the feather hair elastics... and... oh man I think I need to watch that movie. If I recall correctly, Amber's character had some insane Spice Girls-esque outfits that I would soooo rock right now! ahhhh!!!! Anyways, the skirt:

(it's vintage of course)

Oh yes she did!

2010-03-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

...what ARE you going to do about it?!?!?!

If facebook deletes my account it's because the world is coming to an end.

2010-03-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

I wanted to point this image out on my Facebook wall before I realized they WOULD for sure delete my account if I did that. We know how they are these days. But take a look at this...

Ew, gross.

This is messed up. They are essentially saying you should never not be on Facebook! Ugh. You know, there's something called a REAL world, where you can connect with people. And I'm sorry but YES it is a zillion times more fun in person. This is so shitty and sad that this is getting so addictive. I won't lie, I am equally as addicted (and it has it's pros and cons). Luckily, I was BLESSED enough to have my iphone stolen a month ago and never had the funds to buy a new phone so I finally got to enjoy life without a cell phone and without being constantly connected to Facebook.

But like, REALLY? Putting an ad on your page when we logout of Facebook telling us to log in right away on our phones? Give me a break. Get over yourselves Facebook, someone's going to crush you (it's only a matter of time) - and when they do, I hope it's with one big, giant TREE!

I went for a walk in the park in the dark

2010-03-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

When a child was a child, it walked with it's arms swinging.
I wanted the stream to be a river, the river a torrent, and this puddle to be the sea.
When the child was a child, it did not know it was a child.
Everything was full of life, and all life was one.
When the child was a child it had no opinion about anything. no habits.
It often sat cross-legged on the floor, took off running, had a cowlick in it's hair, and didn't make faces when photographed.

When the child was a child.

I went for a walk in the park in the dark

A walk in the park in the dark with a shark

Sharky dark shark slimes through the dark park

Park is like dark when a lamps got too dark.

Shark is like park when a parks got too dark.

Dark is like shark when a parks got too dark.

Shark in a world where lamps got too dark is a shark

In the park

In the dark.

I died in the park with the shark in the dark.
I slept through the days with the shark before dark.
I slept through the light of the sun with the shark.
Dark is the park when the lamps got too dark.
Park is the dark when the parks got a shark.

SLEEPING BEAUTY....

Vengeful fairy casts a spell on a baby princess:

'Reaching adulthood the girl will prick her finger on a spindle and fall dead'

A compassionate fairy tempers the curse, which then dooms the child to one hundred years of sleep instead of death.

She pricks her finger at the cusp of adulthood. She falls asleep.

"The gentle mermaid has lost her hope.

The boat she was guiding during a storm was sunk.

Her winged heart locket was broken.

In time, she will look up and see her three friends, riding on dolphins,

coming to her rescue."

But SLEEP is better than death when you can still have the ability to dream...

So sleep, but while you are there... sleep to dream.

Enter the world of dreams, archetypes and symbols with courage and emotional calm. Learn while you are in a receptive state. Like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, a magical process is underway in the depths of your being.

SLEEP WITH ME TO WONDERLAND WE GO!

"I can think of 6 impossible things before breakfast. 1. there's a drink that makes you smaller 2. there's a cake that makes you larger 3. animals can talk 4. cats can fly 5. THERE IS A WONDERLAND 6. I CAN SLAY THE JABBERWOCKY!!!"

When you awaken, you spread like an eagle over formerly uncharted realms of knowledge. The process of metamorphosis is dangerous, but every child must go through this transformative period before it can float above the world.

Awaken to the beauty of this new structure. Let go of the past.

"I can tell you my day, starting from this morning", said Alice, timidly.
"But there is no use going back to yesterday, for I was a different person then".

It’s a new day with a new dream, one that is capable of bringing you and your mates great happiness. As you measure the level of fulfillment, you begin to asses what it is you really need.

It is a time to immerse yourself in that which brings you life, and to relinquish all that which weakened your inherent capacity to give and receive love.

EVERY CHILD MUST WALK THROUGH THE PARK IN THE DARK WITH THE SHARK.
EVERY CHILD MUST GO TO WONDERLAND AS A CHILD.
EVERY ADULT MUST REVISIT WONDERLAND AS AN ADULT, TO REMEMBER WHAT THEY FORGOT.
EVERY ADULT MUST REVISIT WONDERLAND AS AN ADULT, TO REMEMBER HOW TO BELIEVE AGAIN!

“Can you close your eyes? Pretend you can see the ocean, pretend you can see the ocean. Pretend you're standing over the ocean. Pretend you're under the ocean. You're a millionaire. You're jumping across mountains. You're jumping across mountains.

Everybody loves you.” - All the Real Girls